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Surrounded by about 100 police officers in riot gear and a helicopter circling above, more than 50 Walmart workers and supporters were arrested in downtown Los Angeles Thursday night as they sat in the street protesting what they called the retailer’s “poverty wages.”

Organizers said it was the largest single act of civil disobedience in Walmart’s 50-year history. The 54 arrestees, with about 500 protesting Walmart workers, clergy and supporters, demonstrated outside LA’s Chinatown Walmart. Those who refused police orders to clear the street after their permit expired were arrested without incident. Those who fail to post $5,000 bail would be jailed overnight, Detective Gus Villanueva, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman, told The Huffington Post.

Their primary demand to Walmart: pay every full-time worker at least $25,000 a year.

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Most products in a Walmart store are made in China. Does anyone actually expect them to care about this country and its workers? Walmart is a multi-national company. The goal is to be as profitable to shareholders as possible. If a physical store worker’s job could be outsourced to China it would be.

Help fix this problem by not buying product made in China.

Stop the expectation that people should not make a decent wage and that all production should be cheap. Buy products made in friendly countries. Help jobs come back to this country.

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